Poetic Aging

As they entered their 50s, documentary filmmakers Anne Macksoud and John Ankele became more and more disgusted with our culture’s obsession with youth.

“Growing older is so inevitable anyway, and to have it looked upon as something that is not valuable and not beautiful and not OK was insulting,” says Macksoud.

The two, says Macksoud, often have used their documentaries as an entree into areas they personally wanted to explore. Since aging was on their minds, in “Grow Old Along With Me,” which airs Tuesday on KCET, they have tried to create a poetic look at the process.

“It is an exploration of what [aging] is really like, asking people what’s hard about it, what are the perks and getting men and women to talk about their experiences,” she says.

Julie Harris and the late Richard Kiley host this poignant look at age through poetry and personal commentary on the positive side of growing old. Besides Harris and Kiley, the documentary features actors James Earl Jones and Hume Cronyn, opera singer Shirley Verrett, Buddhist nun Pema Chodron, artist and author Frederick Franck and his wife, Claske, and 93-year-old photojournalist Leni Sonnenfeld.

Ankele says they were looking for participants who could guide viewers “into these unknown areas of aging that are so fraught with problems and fears--the areas that our culture avoids and denies.”

Macksoud says she was touched by the participants’ willingness to be honest, especially Cronyn, who expresses his anger that his body is betraying him.

“There isn’t much out there in the way of guidance,” says Ankele. “They know the landscape ahead and they are willing to share their experience.”

Harris, who turned 74 earlier this month, says the trick of staying young is to have enormous curiosity. “Wisdom comes with age,” says the five-time Tony Award-winner. “People are drawn to those people who have this sustaining power.”

She believes she’s become a better actress with age: “I don’t get in my way as much.”

But Harris realizes that appearances do matter. The actress noted a magazine article that stated when a woman gets past 50, she is no longer sexually desirable to men.

“They become women of glass,” Harris says. “Even when I am trying my best to look good, nobody notices. I could wear a red sock or a blue sock or I could wear rags and no one would say anything because men don’t look at you the way they would if you are still in your 30s or 40s.”

Still, Harris says, some women have an aura about them which renders them more beautiful with age. “With most of us that unfortunately doesn’t happen,” she adds, laughing. “But Judi Dench, who is my idol now, she is so beautiful she takes my breath away. The same with Dame Wendy Hiller, who is in her 80s now. She is more beautiful than ever.”

Frederick Franck, 90, believes the special paints an honest portrayal of aging. “I thought there is no kitsch in this. I admire it because I am a great enemy of kitsch. At first I thought there was too much poetry in it, but later I saw that it fitted beautifully.”

Despite a recent car crash and a bout with pneumonia, Franck, who has written more than 27 books, will only consider retiring “if I am forced by a superior force.”

“Both of us have been active and kept working,” says his wife, Claske Franck, 81. “It no doubts helps to keep you young. If young people see this documentary, they will have a different feeling [about old age].”

Almost everyone involved in the documentary was a friend of Kiley’s, who died in March, six months after completion of the special. Macksoud, who was Kiley’s neighbor, says the actor knew he was dying of a blood disorder when he made the documentary.

“He would have spoken more about it, but he wanted to go on working,” Macksoud says. “He didn’t want the word to be out. He alluded to [his illness] in the interview when he says the thing that he was scared of was losing his wife Patricia. He wasn’t well during any of the shooting, but he didn’t dwell on his death. He just knew it was coming, and he wanted to live up until the end.”

Though most of the participants are financially secure, they all have suffered losses, says Ankele. “Richard’s death is the most dramatic. But Hume talks about losing his eyesight. Frederick has lost his hearing. Julie and Leni both have heart problems. Pema has chronic fatigue syndrome. James Earl Jones talks about his depression. But they tell you they have moved through it. They have found a way to embrace it in their own life, so they can go on despite of it.”

Macksoud says making the documentary made a world of difference in her own fear of aging. “Not that the fears and resistance don’t rise up every day when I notice something else creaking. But right away, there is a memory of something that one of those people said that pulls me back and says, ‘Be courageous. It’s going to be OK.’ ”

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* COVER DESIGN BY KELLI SULLIVAN/LOS ANGELES TIMES